Coin valuations

Question: What is my coin worth?

Answer: We get frequent questions at the Museum as to the value of coins and medals (and other objects from a range of different areas) that people may be holding.

Unfortunately Museum Victoria is not able to provide valuations of coins, or indeed of any items.

How to get your items valued

Published price guides for items such as coins, antiques and stamps are often available through the municipal library system, and commercial dealers specialising in these items can be helpful.

A rough guide to current worth can sometimes be obtained by a search for similar items on online auction sites, although due caution should be exercised.

Another helpful resource is the Cultural Gifts Program’s 'List of approved valuers'. This is a Commonwealth-approved list of professional valuers, listed by state and specialty. These experts may charge a fee for their services, but they can be contacted for confirmation of any applicable fees or charges.

You can view the list in the reference library in the Discovery Centre at Melbourne Museum.

To get your own copy of the list, and for further information about the Cultural Gifts Program, contact:

Secretariat
Cultural Gifts Program
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
Telephone: (02) 6275 9651
Facsimile: (02) 6275 9664
Email: cgp.mail@environment.gov.au
Website: http://www.arts.gov.au/tax_incentives/cgp (The 'List of Approved Valuers' is available as a pdf download in the right column of the website.)

Please note: Museum Victoria cannot tell you how much your object is worth. Please read this infosheet for further advice. We will not publish or respond to comments asking us to value an object.

Comments (19) popular  |  oldest  |  newest

Discovery Centre 10 Feb 2010 11:48

Hi Dave - As noted in the text above unfortunately Museum Victoria cannot provide valuations of objects including coins. Published price guides for items such as coins, antiques and stamps are often available through the municipal library system, and commercial dealers specialising in these items can be helpful. Another resource that may prove of assistance in this area is the Cultural Gifts Program’s List of approved valuers.  

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Discovery Centre 29 Jul 2010 12:40

Sorry, Sam - we're not sure which coin you're referring to. In any case, determining the validity of a coin is best done with the advice of a coin specialist who can examine the item in your possession and advise accordingly. Each mint had its own traditions regarding marking or not marking their coins.

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Discovery Centre 29 Jul 2010 15:00

Alfred, there were many coins and medals struck in relation to the 1880 exhibition. If you are proposing this medal as a donation to Museum Victoria's collection, please do so using this form, giving us as much information as you can about the particular item in your collection.

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Discovery Centre 03 Dec 2010 14:38

Hi Siva. The museum can't authenticate coins and, as with valuations, you should contact a numismatist. There could be Edward VII coins from a number of countries, so without images and details, it's not possible to tell you more about it. If you do a simple web search for 'Edward VII coins' you will come up with a number of websites that may give you further information.

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Discovery Centre 09 Feb 2011 10:04

Hi Ricky, you will find plenty of information online regarding options for valuations, check out the links on the right hand side of this page.  Alternatively, if you would like to offer the coins to the museum, please read the donation guidelines. 

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John 26 Apr 2012 19:14

Hi, I have found a coin with J.A.Wilson Palace Hotel on it with 6d in the middle on the other side it has D H across the middle. Could you tell me anything about it? Thanks John

 

Discovery Centre 13 May 2012 10:48

Hi John, to do identifications we usually require an image. Without seeing your 'coin' we would imagine that this is a hospitality token similar to those on from the Palace Hotel on our Collections Online website. In fact we have a large number of these tokens in our collection, which possibly functioned in a similar way to the other trade tokens that were used as both replacements for coins and advertising for businesses in 19th century Australia. Information on the Palace Hotel on Bourke Street can be found in the book Whelan the wreckers, on the State Library of Victoria's Cole Tetlow Index, in the Encyclopedia of Melbourne here and here, and in numerous newspaper articles on the Trove website.

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